Cholera cases rising again in eastern Sudan’s El Gedaref

The rate of cholera infection which is claimed by Sudan’s government to be acute watery diarrhoea has resumed rising in El Gedaref after it has seen a drop down over the past period.

A health source told Radio Dabanga that the isolation ward at El Gedaref hospital is overcrowded with cholera infected patients.

“The number of cases in El Gedaref Hospital isolation ward is more than 20, while the average daily visit to the hospital amounts to five cases,” he said.

Incidences of cholera in El Gallabat East locality continue with limited rates, while the districts of El Gedaref town have recorded an increase in the infection rates. The El Azaza Um Khanjar area in El Gedaref locality recorded three new cases of cholera on Wednesday.

“Infection rates will be growing in the coming rainy season if the Ministry continues to ignore its outbreak.”

The source strongly criticised the government's disregard of the spread of cholera and the El Gedaref Ministry of Health ignoring of the disease, despite its spread for several months.

“Infection rates will be growing in the coming rainy season if the Ministry continues to ignore its outbreak,” he predicted.

According to the Doctors' Executive Committee in January, the results of laboratory tests on acute diarrhoea samples conducted in the Ahmed Gasim Hospital in Khartoum proved cholera. A specialist in infectious diseases as well as several doctors in Sudan “are convinced that it is cholera,” and not, as reported by federal and state governments, an outbreak of acute watery diarrhoea.